FALCO SPARVEKIUS. 
AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 
[Plate XXXII.— Fig. 2, Male.] 
Little Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, J\^o, 110 . — Emerillon de Cayenne, 
Buff, i, 291, PL enl. JV*o. 444 . — Lath, i, 110. — Peale’s Mu- 
seum, t/V*o. 340.* 
As the male and the female of this species differ considerably 
in the markings of their plumage, the male is introduced, drawn 
to one half its natural size, to conform with the rest of the 
figures on the plate. 
The male Sparrow Hawk measures about ten inches in length, 
and twenty-one in extent; the whole upper parts of the head 
are of a fine slate blue, the shafts of the plumage being black, 
the crown excepted, which is marked with a spot of bright 
rufous; the slate tapers to a point on each side of the neck; 
seven black spots surround the head, as in the female, on a 
reddish white ground, which also borders each sloping side of 
the blue; front, lores, line over and under the eye, chin and 
throat, white; femoral and vent feathers yellowish white; the 
rest of the lower parts of the same tint, each feather being streak- 
ed down the centre with a long black drop, those on the breast 
slender, on the sides larger; upper part of the back and scapulars 
deep reddish bay, marked with ten or twelve transverse waves 
of black; whole wing-coverts, and ends of the secondaries, bright 
slate, spotted with black; primaries and upper half of the second- 
*We add the following syiionymes: — Falco sparverius, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, p. 
90. — Gmel. Syst. i, p. 284. — Ind. Orn. p. 42. — F. Dotninicensis, Gmei. Syst- 
I, p. 285. — Little Hawk, Catesbt, i, p. 5. — VEmerillon de la Caroline, Briss. 
Orn. I, p. 386. VEmerillon de St. Domingue, Id. p. 389. — Tinnunculus sparve- 
riu ), ViEiL. Ois. de I’Am. Sept. p. 12-13. 
